Quality

Items in Tyranny have one of five Quality ratings: Common, Fine, Superior, Exquisite, and Masterwork. As an item's quality rating improves, so do its effects. Weapons deal more damage, Armor becomes more protective, etc. Item quality can be improved with the Forge upgrade.

General

 * Items of Common, Fine, and Superior Quality can be found on the bodies of enemies or in stores throughout Tyranny. Some locked chests will contain the occasional Exquisite item.
 * The only way to obtain a Masterwork item is to improve it yourself (or be really high level).

Weapon quality

 * Damage increases by roughly 30% (minimum) and 25% (maximum) per quality level.
 * Weapons with Accuracy or Armor Penetration bonuses receive an additional +2 Accuracy and +1 Armor Penetration per quality level.

Shield quality

 * Parry and Dodge bonuses increase by +1 per quality level.
 * Endurance bonuses increase every other quality level by +1 (except for iron shields).
 * Recovery penalties are reduced by -0.1s every other quality level.

Armor quality

 * Bonuses
 * Helmets receive +1 Accuracy per quality level.
 * Gloves receive +1 Precision per quality level and +2 to Unarmed damage.
 * Boots receive +1 (cloth), +2 (light leather), or +3 (heavy leather) to disengagement protection per quality level.
 * Material
 * All cloth items receive +1% Deflection per quality level.
 * All leather items receive +1% Deflection every other quality level.
 * All non-cloth body armor receives +1 Armor per quality level.
 * All bronze and iron helmets receive +0.5 Armor per quality level.
 * Items with increased protection against particular types of damage (eg. bronze armor vs. corroding damage) receive a +25 bonus to that protection.
 * Recovery
 * Recovery penalties for body armor are reduced by -0.1s when reaching Exquisite quality (body armor). Gloves, boots, and helmets receive a -0.1s reduction every other quality level.
 * Barik is an exception, as his body armor receives that bonus at the same rate as other pieces of his armor.